Existing optical communication systems typically operate at a transmission rate of about ten gigabits per second and employ temporal or time-based modulation to transmit data over fiber optic telecommunication lines. A source of light, such as a laser, is rapidly switched on and off, “modulated,” to translate a stream of electronic data to an optical data stream for transmission. When the data stream reaches its destination, a receiver or demodulator reads the data stream and converts the optical data into a stream of electronic data, data that can be operated on by common computers.